


hammer to fall

by Marked_by_moonlight



Series: Passing Strange [1]
Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Bisexual Steve Harrington, Bisexuality, F/F, F/M, Gay, Government Agencies, Government Conspiracy, Graphic Description, Grief/Mourning, HIV/AIDS, Heavy Angst, Homophobia, Lesbian Robin Buckley, M/M, Multi, Period-Typical Homophobia, Polyamory, Queer Character, Queer History, Queerplatonic Relationships, Sad Ending, The Author Regrets Everything, Threesome - F/M/M, Title from a Queen Song, Violence
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-28
Updated: 2019-10-28
Packaged: 2021-01-06 01:02:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 700
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21217970
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Marked_by_moonlight/pseuds/Marked_by_moonlight
Summary: They were all, in one way or another, queer.And they were not going away.After all, what was the U.S. government going to do?Toss them into the Upside Down?





	hammer to fall

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: I do not own Stranger Things
> 
> This has a very graphic description of violence towards queer people. Will dies. It isn't very happy.
> 
> I'm treating this material with the utmost respect. My heart goes out to anyone who has lost a loved one, a family member, or a partner from AIDS.
> 
> Any homophobic comments or comments telling me that queer is a slur WILL be deleted.

It takes them by surprise. One minute, Will is fine. The next, a doctor is sneering down at them, telling them Will is most certainly not fine.

She can barely breathe. Her brother in law, her little brother’s partner, her partner’s little brother, has HIV. 

She distantly hears Jonathan call Joyce in the background. Her hands are shaking and there is nothing she can do. There is no monster to fight, not this time. They are powerless to help Will. Nancy feels her bones turn to jelly at the thought that in a few years, they’d be helping Joyce and Jonathan work through the funeral arrangements.

Steve’s arms snake around her middle, the only thing holding her up, holding her steady. Her eyes feel tired. Her makeup is smeared by the tears running down her face. After everything, after all they’d been through, that spark of rage and hate towards the government had now fanned into a roaring bonfire.

Reagan and Bush were doing nothing. It was bullshit. Nancy felt like snarling, marching to Washington and screaming at them. The people that had tortured Eleven, killed Barb and then covered up her death, had let millions die by doing nothing. They were going to let Will die by doing nothing.

\----

Will gets sicker by the day, Summer turns to Fall, and Will Byers dies in the first week of October, 1992.

Lucas had heard through the grapevine that ACTup was having a political funeral on the White House lawn. They all agree to let Will’s final resting place be split between Hawkins and D.C.

They make the drive to D.C. in relative silence. The only break in the heavy gloom and anger was when Max decided to drive, and Steve had said that wouldn’t be happening, he’d like to be in one piece, thank you. 

Nancy ends up squished in the back seat between Dustin and Lucas. El is sitting on Mike’s lap, Max is sitting in Robin’s, and Jonathan and Steve take turns driving. Joyce drives separately, and offers the space in her car. None of them take her up on her offer. They don’t want to be separated, not when one of their own is gone. 

The fear that anyone of them could be next winds itself through her belly. The tales of queer kids getting thrown out of their homes, dragged behind trucks, being beaten until the only thing left was something horrifying.  
Loved ones, family members, partners, all dropping like flies. It was like waiting for the hammer to fall, looming over them like a guillotine.

The countryside passes in a blur of green and burnished red-golds. She cannot breathe. Her throat is too thick, swallowing back the onslaught of tears. She flops her head onto Dustin’s shoulder, and tries not to cry.

Robin had come over to Steve’s after her parents had kicked her out. The blonde woman had been in tears. She said that they had tried to take her to conversion therapy, to beat the abomination out of her. 

Nancy had never seen Steve look so angry. He had been wearing the dark blue cable knit sweater she’d made him. He had embraced Robin and sworn to fix it and damn the consequences. Robin had given her partner a grin so bright that it outshone the sun. The fact that Steve had won one fight in his entire life had been brought up, and then Jonathan suggested the obvious.

Robin would marry Steve, and Nancy would marry Jonathan. They would give the appearance of the perfect nuclear family at the end of the cul-de-sac. 

Steve worked at the grocery store with Joyce and a double shift with his dad, for the benefits. They had all agreed that she’d marry Jonathan, become Mrs. Byers. Steve would, to the public, be her high school sweetheart, and the uncle to her children. 

However, the Party knew the truth. Steve and Nancy and Jonathan were a trio. They loved each other equally, unconditionally. 

They were all, in one way or another, queer.

And they were not going away.

After all, what was the U.S. government going to do?

Toss them into the Upside Down?


End file.
